Aso's cash handout plan on the line after Koizumi's remarks+

TOKYO, Feb. 13 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Taro Aso's cash handout scheme could now be on the line after
his recent negative comments about postal privatization angered one of Japan's
most influential lawmakers -- former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who
spearheaded the privatization.

''I doubt the bill is one that needs to be passed'' forcibly in a House of
Representatives revote, Koizumi said Thursday at a meeting of Liberal
Democratic Party lawmakers. He was referring to a bill needed to implement the
controversial cash benefit plan included in a second extra budget for fiscal
2008 ending next month.
The bill in question is expected to be voted down in the House of Councillors
controlled by the opposition bloc led by the Democratic Party of Japan, meaning
it would need an endorsement with a two-thirds majority in a revote in the more
powerful lower house in order to clear the Diet.
''I understand that (Koizumi's comments) are supposed to encourage me,'' Aso
told reporters in the evening.
''At a time when the country is mired in an economic recession that comes
around once in a hundred years...it's proper to use the (constitutional)
provision allowing for the two-thirds majority,'' Aso said, indicating that the
extra budget must be quickly implemented.
But what appear to be moves by Koizumi against the 68-year-old current prime
minister have taken a toll on the Aso government, which has suffered
continuously sagging public support ratings amid a string of policy flip-flops,
and have frayed the already wavering unity in his party.
Koizumi's remarks could also have a negative effect on Diet deliberations on
the bill related to the already unpopular cash handout plan totaling 2 trillion
yen, which Aso has touted as his key economic stimulus plan.
Azuma Koshiishi, head of the DPJ's upper house caucus, told a party meeting
Friday that the DPJ will put off voting on the bill in the chamber until
Koizumi returns from a planned trip to Russia on Feb. 20.
The largest opposition party is hoping that Koizumi and other LDP members,
particularly the so-called ''Koizumi children,'' would move to rebel against
the bill in the subsequent lower house revote.
If 16 or more ruling coalition lawmakers of the lower house defect, the
coalition would fail to win the two-thirds majority.
''Mr. Koizumi, on our behalf, conveyed our belief that 'it is unfair' to use
the two-thirds majority rule,'' Koshiishi said.
Koizumi, 67, made the remarks Thursday after Aso said last week that he was not
in favor of the postal privatization plan but had agreed to it because he was a
Cabinet member when the government decided on it and that he is willing to
review the current four-company setup under Japan Post Holdings Co. launched in
2007.
Koizumi, the former prime minister who maintained high popularity throughout
his terms from 2001 to 2006, said in response that the comments by Aso ''made
me laugh more than angry'' and that ''I'm just stunned.''
The ''Koizumi children'' are LDP lawmakers who won their first Diet seats in
the September 2005 general election held in line with Koizumi's dissolution of
the Diet and during which he sought a public mandate for his postal
privatization initiative.
Koizumi's LDP, along with its coalition partner, the New Komeito party, won the
election by a landslide.
''I don't think Mr. Koizumi would vote for the (budget-related) bill and the
Koizumi children should follow suit,'' DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama
said in a speech in Chiba, just east of Tokyo. ''If the bill doesn't get
cleared, the Aso administration will be bogged down. This will be it for him.''
The current ruling coalition had aimed to ask the upper house to vote on the
bill next Tuesday at a related committee so they can get it passed in a lower
house revote by the end of next week.
At a press conference, LDP Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda reiterated that
the party's position remains unchanged that the bill must be sent back to the
lower house and passed by a two-thirds majority.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, meanwhile, told a separate press
conference that Koizumi made the comments ''out of parental tenderness'' and as
''encouragement'' for Aso.
Kawamura later added that Aso is not denying Koizumi's structural reforms,
emphasizing that in the medium and long terms Aso is looking to proceed with
the reforms the Koizumi Cabinet pursued, with postal privatization as its
pillar.
But Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa expressed a critical view of Koizumi,
saying, ''I suppose he endorsed the bill,'' in reference to Koizumi's ballot
cast when the lower house voted on the second extra budget and related bills in
January.
''I'm having a hard time understanding why he's expressing opposition to them
at this stage,'' he added.
The bill to implement the cash benefit plan is one of the extra budget's
related bills.
Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, who was against the postal privatization in
2005, also appeared to rebuke Koizumi, saying at a press conference, ''We need
to stand together as we're now making utmost efforts to enact the state budget
(for fiscal 2009).''
Calling for unity among ruling bloc members, New Komeito chief Akihiro Ota
said, ''It's an important bill and needs to be enacted into law with a
two-thirds majority.''
In the meantime, some senior DPJ lawmakers are skeptical about the possibility
that ruling lawmakers who approved the bill in the first vote in the lower
house will change their stance and vote it down in the revote.
Under the cash handout plan worth a total of 2 trillion yen, which is included
in a second extra budget for fiscal 2008, each individual would receive 12,000
yen and an extra 8,000 yen would be given to children aged 18 or younger and
seniors aged 65 or older.
Koizumi is scheduled to visit Russia for a week from Saturday as part of
academic exchanges promoted by a research center for which he serves as an
adviser.
==Kyodo